LIFE AND CHARACTER 



CHARLES LINSLEY, 



E. J. PHELPS. 



SKETCH 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 



CHARLES LINSLEY, 



READ BEFORE TI1E 



VERMONT HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 



E. J. PHELPS. 



PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. 



ALBANY, N. Y. : 

J. MUNSELL, 78 STATE STREET. 
1866. 



TS3 

•his 






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CHARLES LINSLET. 



JL HE life of a lawyer, however eminent, if mainly 
devoted to the pursuit of his profession, affords but 
few materials for the manufacture of biography. His 
labors, unlike those of the statesman, or even the 
politician, are expended for the most part upon private 
and personal affairs, of but temporary consequence, 
and having no hold upon history. The attention 
which courts of justice usually attract is but transi- 
tory, and the excitement that sometimes attends them 
soon passes away. The contests of the forum are 
rapidly forgotten. Even their results are generally 
unimportant, except to the parties concerned. 

Nor has the advocate, like the successful author, 
the advantage of leaving his productions behind him, 
in permanent and accessible form. His best efforts 
perish with the occasion that produces them. The 
vigorous practical sense, the wit, the fancy, the elo- 
quence even, that embalmed in the pages of literature 
might survive through many generamms of the 
brotherhood of scholarship, are scattered by the way- 
side, never to be gathered up nor remembered. His 



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more~solid and valuable, though less attractive labors 
in the learning of his profession, rarely receive even a 
momentary attention, outside the circle of the bench 
and the bar, and are often least appreciated by those 
who profit by them most. His reputation, therefore, 
survives but in tradition. Only the patient student 
in the science of the law ever traces through the bro- 
ken fragments of the reports, the life of the master 
lawyer as well as of the judge, in the gradual growth 
of great principles, and the establishment of a sound 
and durable jurisprudence. 

It is but little then, at best, that usually remains to 
be told of the departed lawyer. Something of the 
manner of man he was, the stand he made, the 
qualities that attracted, and the force he brought to 
bear, can perhaps be added to the dry record of the 
events of his life. But in the main, Mr. "Webster's 
epitome of the career of a successful advocate tells 
the whole story : To work hard : — to live well : — to die 
poor. 

Mr. Linsley was born in Cornwall, in Addison 
county, on the 29th of August, 1795. His father, Hon. 
Joel Linsley, one of the earliest and most prominent 
settlers of that town, came there from Woodbury, 
Conn., in 1775. I extract from Rev. Mr. Matthews's 
excellent history of Cornwall, some interesting ac- 
count of him. 

Mr. Matthews says, " Judge Linsley belonged to a 
class of men whose energy, enterprise and intelli- 



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gence go fur in forming the character of a town. He 
was indeed formed by nature to exert a controlling in- 
fluence, in any community in which he might reside. 
He was appointed town clerk at the organization of 
the town, and held that office, with the exception of 
two years, until his decease, in 1818. He represented 
the town several years in the state legislature ; was 
assistant judge, and afterwards chief judge of the 
county court. His wisdom was often called into re- 
quisition by his fellow citizens, in cases where special 
executive tact was needful. In every office his duties 
were discharged with marked ability, and to universal 
acceptance. 

"Few men enjoyed with keener relish the pleasures 
of social intercourse. Possessing an inexhaustible 
fund of anecdote and humor, and unusual conversa- 
tional powers, he was the life of every circle with 
which he associated. The aged and the young 
alike found him an agreeable companion. To the un- 
fortunate he was a sympathizing friend; to virtuous 
indigence a cheerful benefactor ; and of every scheme 
of benevolent effort a munificent patron." 

Judge Linsley had two sons who grew up, Charles, 
the subject of this memoir, and Rev. Joel H. Linsley, 
D.D., who still survives, a much respected minister of 
the Congregational church. 

Charles grew up to manhood in the county where 
he was born. He did not enjoy the advantage of 
liberal studies in early years, but seems to have ac- 



i 



6 

quired a good plain education, and a useful apprecia- 
tion of the necessity of something more. He was 
first engaged in mercantile pursuits; was employed 
in a store in Salisbury, where he at the same time 
taught a singing school ; and afterwards for a while in 
New York. In 1818 he entered into the business of 
selling goods at Middlebury, in partnership with Ben- 
jamin Seymour. This, however, continued but a short 
time. He had already begun to turn his attention 
toward the legal profession, and had been earnestly 
striving during his mercantile life, though with few 
advantages, to acquire some classical knowledge, as a 
foundation. Judge Chipman, of Washington, says 
that he frequently called at Mr. Linsley's store of an 
evening, and almost always found him, if disengaged 
from business, poring over Virgil. 

About the year 1819 he commenced studying the 
law in the office of Mr. Starr, in Middlebury, and 
after remaining there a year or two went to St. Albans 
and completed his course in the office of Mr., after- 
wards Chief Justice Royce, working very hard there 
both in law and classics. In 1823 he was admitted to 
the bar in Franklin county, returned to Middlebury, 
and began there the practice of his profession. 

At that day, the Addison county bar comprised no 
ordinary class of men. Perhaps no rural district 
ever combined in that profession at one time, a greater 
variety of remarkable ability. Daniel Chipman, nerv- 
ous, vigorous and luminous, a master of the common 



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[aw; Seymour, acute, subtle, fertile and convincing; 
Bates, eloquent, adroit and accomplished; Edmunds, 
one of the most finished advocates that ever lived; 
TVoodbridge, pithy and sagacious; with Starr, Phelps, 
and many others who could be named, all strong men, 
formed an array that might well suggest to the new 
comer whether his usefulness there was likely to be 
extensive. That was, doubtless, throughout the state, 
the golden age of the profession. The business of 
the courts was large, taxing their utmost capacity to 
discharge. The people, attracted by the brilliant 
forensic displays, and unable as now to return almost 
nightly to their homes, thronged the Court Houses 
during the entire sessions, and afforded to the advo- 
cates the stimulus of an eager and intelligent audience. 
The occupation of the bar, too, was in itself more 
intellectual than now. American law was compara- 
tively an open field, with much remaining to be done 
in the application of English principles to American 
institutions. The statutes were few, simple and clear. 
The flood of enactments, ill-advised, and worse ex- 
pressed, which has since swept over the common law, 
and obliterated so many of its landmarks, was then 
unknown. Nor was that age favored with the incredi- 
ble multiplication of modern reports. The day of 
case learning had not begun. Much villainous gun- 
powder of that sort had not yet been " digged out 
of the bowels of the earth." They had but few 
books; the best collection among them all w^^d have 



made but a pitiful figure at a modern auction. But 
those they had were of the early English classics 
of the law, and were thoroughly read, and well under- 
stood. 

The consequence was, that the law had more science 
and less learning ; more of the perfection of reason, 
and less of the imperfection of popular legislation. 
Conclusions had to be reasoned out from general 
principles, rather than hunted for among multitudes 
of conflicting cases, and practical rules deduced from 
a discriminating application of the common law, not 
from the forced misconstruction of incapable statutes. 
Causes, too, were not then patched up by a referee in 
a corner, but manfully fought out in open day, before 
a jury of the county, and the county itself; and called 
forth the finest powers and most fertile resources of 
the advocates. 

The lawyers of that day, therefore, if less technical, 
were more logical. If less learned in cases, they were 
more firmly grounded in principles. If less cunning 
of fence, they were stouter of arm. And the senti- 
ments of a gentleman, and the education of a scholar, 
were found no disadvantage even before the plain but 
appreciative tribunal of the jury box. 

Tradition yet speaks of the splendid tournaments 
of those days, in the Addison county courts; but 
only tradition. All the actors have passed away. Mr. 
Linsley, the youngest of all, survived them all, and 
survive^^lso, most of his later associates. No relic 





of those scenes now remains, except the old Court 
House, itself fallen into " the sere and yellow leaf j" 
which, by no great stretch of fancy, seems in its deser- 
tion and decay, to be still listening mournfully forthe 
remembered voices that shall return uo more. 

To say that Mr. Linsley, then a young man, took at 
once a respectable standing among such competitors ; 
that he gradually but steadily advanced in reputation 
and public regard, till he came to be reckoned among 
their equals, and that as his eminent seniors, one after 
another, left the business of the bar, he became one of 
its acknowledged leaders, and ably maintained that 
position for many years, is to say much ; enough per- 
haps ; but no more than the truth. The early death 
of Mr. Edmunds, the retirement of Mr. Chipmau, the 
election of Mr. Seymour to the United States senate, 
and of Mr. Phelps to the bench, and the removal of 
Mr. Bates to New York, as they successively occurred, 
left him in the foremost ranks of the profession. No 
counsel was then more sought than his : few causes of 
any consequence tried there without his assistance, 
no influence in that part of the state regarded as more 
effective with juries, or more useful with the bench. 
"When I came to the bar in 1844, and began to form 
an appreciative acquaintance with him, he had been 
in a leading practice for more than ten years, and was 
in the full maturity of his powers. As a lawyer, he 
was not remarkably accurate in technicalities, nor 
greatly versed in cases. Perhaps he might have bene- 



10 

ficially pursued the pure learning of the profession 
farther than he did. But he was well grounded 
in the principles of the law, and capable of applying 
them with vigorous logic, and sagacious discrimina- 
tion, A strong common sense gave practical value 
to his knowledge, and if he made a mistake it was on 
the just and sensible side. To the discussion of legal 
questions he brought a masculine strength of argu- 
ment, and often originality of thought ; and was 
especially forcible in exposing an untenable or unjust 
position. 

In addressing juries, without being either fluent or 
elegant, he was always impressive and able, often 
singularly happy, and sometimes, when roused by an 
adequate occasion, even eloquent. His strong sense, 
shrewd perceptions, and correct estimate of character, 
enabled him generally to present a subject in its most 
acceptable and forcible light. His addresses, both to 
courts and juries, were always pervaded by an elevated 
sentiment, never descending below a just dignity, or 
appealing to an unworthy prejudice. 

He excelled also in the difficult art of cross-ex- 
amination. While he never unjustly attacked an 
honest witness, few dishonest ones were able to escape 
his acute penetration, and cool imperturbable self- 
possession. 

Taking causes as they came, it is fair to say, 
that no man there did them on the whole better 
justice. And his shrewdness and remarkable reticence 



11 

iii business affairs made him a safe and reliable 
counsellor. 

Better than all, his professional life was influenced 
by high toned and manly sentiments. He did no 
man's dirty work, and descended to no trick or sharp 
practice. In the ardor and solicitude of the advocate, 
he never forgot what belonged to the gentleman, 
and well discharged the debt which, in hackneyed 
phrase, every man is said to owe to his profession, by 
striving to elevate its character, and sustain its dignity. 

Mr. Linsley remained in Middlebury, engaged ex- 
clusively in business at the bar, and commanding 
much public respect and confidence, down to 1856, 
a period of thirty-three years, comprising the prime 
of his life. Many successive volumes of the Vermont 
reports show in some measure, how extensively, 
during twenty-four of those years, he was engaged 
in the discussion of legal questions, and how con- 
siderably he aided in building up the system of 
Vermont common law, which during this period at- 
tained a large share of its growth. With very few 
exceptions, the supreme court throughout that period 
was unusually able. Hardly any of their decisions 
have since been questioned. Taken together, they 
form no small portion of the groundwork of the law 
under which we live. 

It is a great mistake to suppose that the growth and 
perfection of such a system is due to the courts alone. 
None know better than eminent judges how much 



12 

they owe to the assistance of an able bar. Of this 
assistance Mr. Linsley furnished his full share. 

Many prominent and exciting trials might be named 
in which he took part, but time would be wanting, 
even if those byegone transactions could now be 
found of interest. 

The case of Fisher, a Prussian, indicted for a heavy 
larceny, was one of the earliest in which he acquired 
distinction. The line exterior and accomplishments 
of Fisher, and the peculiar circumstances of the offence 
charged against him, attracted much attention to the 
trial. Mr. Linsley was associated with Gov. Van Ness 
in the defence, and made a remarkably able and suc- 
cessful argument. 

The case of Thompson, twice tried for the murder 
of his wife by poison, and saved on both trials by a 
disagreement of the jury, was the occasion of one of 
his best and most eloquent efforts. A will case of 
much importance tried in Windsor county, in which 
he obtained a verdict against the will, was also some- 
what celebrated, and his argument was spoken of as 
being of extraordinary power and effect by those who 
heard it. The eminent Charles Marsh said he had 
never known its ability surpassed at the Woodstock 
bar. 

During the period above mentioned Mr. Linsley 
had also mingled freely in society. He had been twice 
married, once in 1826, to Miss Sarah, daughter of 
Hon. Daniel Chipman, who died in 1841, and again 



13 

to Miss Emeline Wells, of Middlebury, who survives 
him. In both these relations he was unusually fortu- 
tunate and happy. 

Few country villages could boast of as good society 
as was to be found in Middlebury, during the first 
twenty years of his residence there. Its hospitalities 
were widely and justly celebrated. The early advan- 
tages of such society doubtless influenced his tastes, 
and formed habits of social intercourse which he re- 
tained through life. Possessing agreeable and digni- 
fied manners, fine conversational powers, and at times 
a charming flow of quiet humor, his presence was 
always acceptable, and often Bought. Liberal in his 
views, and thoughtful in his regard for others, his wit 
sparkled without wounding, and amused without of- 
fending. He was fond of most things that are in- 
teresting in social life, especially of music. His old 
companions will remember how well, with manly 
voice, and kindling eye, he used to sing a famous lyric 
of his younger day, inspired by the battle of New 
Orleans, The Hunters of Kentucky. 

He carried these habits to a large degree into his 
associations with the bar. Some twenty years ago he 
instituted a series of annual entertainments anions: 
the Addison county bar. The first was given at his 
house, and was so remarkably successful, that they 
were continued for a number of years at the winter 
term of the supreme court for the county. Though 
many of the elder lawyers named, had then passed 



14 

away, their successors contained among them men of 
fine talents and unusual social accomplishments. Bar- 
ber, Beckwith, Tucker, ISTeedham, Kasson and Ozias 
Seymour among the dead, with others still surviving, 
made up a bright and kindly circle. Some here will 
remember, none that shared them will ever forget, 
those nodes coenaz que deorum. They were much more 
than mere festivities. All brought forward of their 
very best. Songs written tor the occasion, and well 
sung : racy and humorous papers, pencil sketches, 
caricatures in prose and verse : all forms of wit, 
humor, whimsicality and genial sentiment. Even 
grave and reverend judges grew rapidly young as the 
night wore on. These annual meetings were kept up 
for a long while, and with increasing success. Until 
death came at last and waited at the feast, dispersed 
the assembly, and put out the lights. 

If it be thought these details are beneath the 
occasion, and are unduly prolonging this little sketch, 
I can only say in apology, they are the small lines that 
give fidelity to the portrait. These " unconsidered 
trifles" make up, after all, a large part of life. They 
attach us to our friends when living, and are dwelt 
upon with most satisfaction after they are gone, when 
the more important pursuits of their lives have faded 
into shadows. 

In politics, Mr. Linsley early connected himself 
with the old democratic party, and adhered to it con- 
sistently through all fortunes, down to the general 



L5 

obliteration of party lines in 18G1. A strong friend 
and admirer oi' Mr. Van Ness, he went with that 
gentleman in 1827, when he led oft' for General -lack- 
son. He was associated politically in those days and 
afterwards, with many leading men in the state. 
Among them were Col. Hyde, Heman Lowry and 
Mr. Haswell of Burlington ; Judge Kellogg of Brat- 
tlehoro, Governor Robinson of Bennington, Judge 
Williams of Rutland. A strong bond of personal 
friendship seemed to have been formed among this 
class of men, by their political connection. The party 
never commanded a majority in Vermont. And dur- 
ing this period of his life Mr. Linsley never held 
office, except the appointment of United States district 
attorney, under the administration of President Polk. 
Indeed he neither sought nor cared for official distinc- 
tion, preferring the duties of his profession and the 
enjoyments of private life. 

He was an early and strong friend of the rail road 
enterprises of the state; and was connected with 
Judge Follett, Mr. Conant, Judge Smalley and others 
in the projection and final completion, through many 
trials and difficulties, of the Rutland and Burlington 
Rail road. 

He had a love for literature, and a fine natural taste 
in it, which he cultivated with care and success. He 
read much and judiciously, and many fragments 
among his papers show how earnestly he endeavored 
in his early manhood to aecquire a scholarly style, 



16 

and to compensate for the want of previous advan- 
tages. To a fine appreciation of the beautiful in nature, 
he added a lively sensibility to all that was elevated 
and generous in character. He had, indeed, to 
greater extent than was generally known beyond his 
intimate friends, the genuine poetic impulse ; a good 
deal tempered and held in check, however, by practi- 
cal good sense. 

Of course the demands of a large business placed 
it out of his power to write much or systematically. 
The papers he has left of this sort, therefore, are 
mostly fragmentary. But for sometime before his 
death, he had been engaged in preparing memoirs of 
the deceased lawyers of Addison county, and had 
brought his sketches, or most of them, nearly or quite 
to a conclusion. I have been favored with a perusal 
of these papers, and trust they may be placed in the 
hands of this society, and be published. They will 
form an interesting addition to the biography of our 
state, much enhanced in value by his personal know- 
ledge of the men and his nice discrimination in the 
estimate of character. 

As a specimen of the poetic taste and style of Mr. 
Linsley, I venture to quote a few lines of his, from an 
extract published in the Poets and Poetry of Vermont. 

" How much of joy and woe, of hope and fear 
Have found a grave in the departed year : 
How many cares are past : how much of all 
We loved or feared is gone beyond recall ; 



17 

Full many :) cloud lias o'er OUT sunshine rolled. 

And many a heart that loved us now is cold. 

And yet the thoughts are sweet that memory brings, 

As o'er the past she waves her tireless win 

Gathers the sweetest flowers of days long past, 

And decks the present year with garlands from the last. 

"While fancy brightens all our crowning hours. 

And robes the future in her golden showers. 

"Though cold our clime, and rude our mountain scenes, 
Though snow-wreaths crown our hills of evergreens, 
No barren heaths surround our frowning rocks, 
Our loftiest hills are sprinkled o'er with flocks. 
And plenty gaily fills her magic horn, 
And Ceres crowns our fertile fields with corn. 
Give me those lofty mountains, rocks and hills, 
Those deep green vales where flow our sparkling rills ; 
Give me those long-loved friends that time endears, 
That charming spot that nursed my early years ; 
Let me but laugh and weep, and live and die 
Among the scenes where all my friends shall lie ; 
With lightsome heart I'll wish each brother mountaineer 
A happy day, and many a happy year." 

I cannot forbear, also, adding a few words of a differ- 
ent sort, from another and incomplete paper, as charac- 
teristic of his quiet humor. 

" I have seen," he says, " one of the fortunate feeders 

of the hungriest of cities, clad in his ample doeskins, 

urging his growing mountain of flesh up "Wall street, 

with what speed he might, sweating along, his vermil- 

3 



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lion countenance illuminated with a carnivorous smile. I 
have seen him arrive at the Tontine coffee house, only 
to find that he has been cheated by a false alarm, and 
that a long long hour must inevitably be interposed 
between him and his dinner. I remember to have 
thought this starving sinner not only the biggest but 
the best picture of disappointment I had ever beheld." 

Other extracts might be added, if time and the 
occasion permitted, enough at least to show that if Mr. 
Linsley had been able to give persistent attention to 
literature, he was quite capable of achieving a gratify- 
ing success. 

In 1856, after a brief absence at the west, engaged 
in some rail road affairs with his sons, he was induced 
to remove to Rutland. Business there had greatly 
increased, while in Addison county it had proportion- 
ately diminished. He formed a partnership with John 
Prout Esq., and entered at once into a very large 
business, more lucrative, probably, than any he had 
ever enjoyed. The next six years, the last of his 
active life, were its busiest. Besides his heavy prac- 
tice, he held, during the years 1856 and 1857, by 
appointment of the supreme court, the office of rail 
road commissioner, being the first incumbent of that 
place after its creation. He was also collector of the 
district of Vermont under President Buchanan, in 
1860. And in 1858, he represented the town of Rut- 
land in the legislature, and took a leading and useful 
part in the debates and the business of the session. 



L9 

But the burden was obviously too great for his 
increasing years and declining health. Towards the 
close of the time he began sensibly to fail. Indeed, 
through most of his residence at Rutland, his efforts 
at the bar, were not usually equal to those of an earlier 
period. Those who only knew him then, would hardly 
realize all he had been in his prime. 

Still, at times, the old fire would fitfully blaze up. 
He argued one cause in particular, before the supreme 
court at Rutland, which presented the question of the 
right of a creditor to levy upon a piano forte obtained 
by a debtor for the use of his daughter. One of the 
judges of the court has told me with how much feel- 
ing and eloquence Mr. Linsley contended for the 
protection of the means attained by a struggling man, 
perhaps through much self-denial and sacrifice, for the 
education of his children. 

In 1862, his health had become so much impaired as 
to render further attention to business out of the 
question. He returned to Middlebury, to the home 
where he had spent so much of his life. It was, 
however, too late for rest to restore him. Though 
able to be out much of the time, and to engage 
more or less in the literary employment before alluded 
to,he gradually declined. He died on the 1st Novem- 
ber, 1863. 

He was buried from St. Stephens church, of which 
he was one of the founders, and had long been 
a member and staunch friend, and from whose doors 



20 

eleven of his children out of seventeen who had 
been born to him had preceded him to the grave. 

Peace to his ashes. Honest, kindly, generous, true 
to his friends, in prosperity modest, in adversity brave, 
he was a Christian gentleman every inch. This world 
has need of more such than it contains. 



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